shocker10

Thanks for the link. I was wondering how the teams looked for next season in north Georgia. Like Ringgold, Heritage, LFO, etc. There is a school that went kind of deep into the State playoffs this year. They had a pretty big freshman corp this year and played well. They have an 8th grade class that just won the middle school NGAC title all three years(the fourth in a row overall). This highschool would have 5 returning freshman, all from the same club team, who have won multiple state league tournaments. They have a few other club/select players in the soph and Junior classes. The eigth grade class coming up has 7 more select players coming up. 4 who play on the same select club and the fifth plays with the 5 freshman already in high school. I want to add one of the girls is probably the best female goalie I have seen play in this area easily. This team has, or should I say had a chance to field 9 decent to really good select players next year. From watching middle school and high school soccer this year, including the playoffs, this team had the potential to go very far if not state champions the next 3 to 4 years. A quick side note, I know middle school soccer can be ugly at best at times. But from what I have seen, this one school has FAR better talent coming up than the others. They gave up like, maybe 20 goals in three years and scored a bunch. A safe bet would be close to 100. I want to add I have been involved in some form of soccer wether playing or coaching for about 30 years. I am not a biased or dellusional parent. Not saying I am Anson Dorrence but I am not a joe schmo ding dong either. Anyway. Sadly all these shouldas wouldas and couldas are for not. This team along with losing their few seniors is also losing atleast four of the five select freshman. The high school coach has made the freshman all year long choose between their select team and school team. Our select team was very flexible and allowed these girls to miss practices so they were not forced to decide or choose. Believe it or not these girls were stressed over this decision. They want to play and represent their school for that 2 or 3 month period, but they also don't want their select team that they are with for about ten months or so out of the season, that they have been on for 5 years or so to feel abandoned. So we told them to take care of school ball. Unlike other high school coaches in the area, who support and encourage their players select activities, who allow concessions or players to be absent from school practice for select games games, this schools coach would have none of that. It was basically school ball before all. The one and only time they requested to miss a practice they were told they would be benched the next game. So these young ladies saw who was being hard headed and who was working with them. As of now, only one may be returning. They say they don't want to be forced to go through that again and choose. So they chose now.And the 8th grader that plays with them on the club team says if they aren't playing, she isn't. What a shame. These girls, the other girls on the school team and the school in general all lose and miss out. They could be a power for the next few years. They could make their school coach look like a genius. They could be state champs. But sadly it doesn't look like it is going to happen. Losising not only their leading scorer but a select midfield crew that has one state championships, losing one of their starting center defenders if not both. A pity. All over the inflexibility of a high school coach.Well all the other north georgia schools will have a pleasant surprise next season. I hope the coach can and will see the error in her ways and have a heart to heart sit down with these players. Because these players are now just as glad the season is over as they were after their final game. They said all though they were sad they lost in playoffs they were relieved. Because although they were not catching flack for missing select activities they always felt guilty. Anyway. I agree parents can ruin a good thing for kids faster than anything else. Some think their kids poop doesn't stink. Everything their kid does wrong is another kids fault. Some complain because their little johnny isn't playing as much as little billy. Parents talking bad about or degrading or gossiping about kids on their own team! On the sidelines during a game no less. I know of a team that ran one of their better players off because of the constant gossip and degrading players. The next season they ran off a few more. Same thing the next. Then these parents finally left. By then the damage to the team was done. The team never recovered is just floundering its way through D3. Too bad, it was a good little team. You just have to take everything with a grain of salt I guess. Sometimes the grain just needs to be reall big, like golfball size. Thanks again and thanks for the chance to vent.

We here over at ERSA have heard nothing about the field conditions. As far as the seedings go, we agree with what you stated but, officially nothing. Why should we? It's not like the state tournament is about 10 days away. Schedules? Nope nothing. Again why rush(insert sarcasm)? It is not like we would want or need to know if we play friday and saturday or two on saturday. (again sarcasm) We wouldn't need to know so we could make tranportation arrangements for friday for the parents who could not get off early enough to take their kids. Or to make hotel reservations. Ahhhh... yes....another favorite subject right now. If ERSA, CUFC and other teams are required to stay at certain hotels are the local teams? I mean ofcourse it would be stupid to make local teams stay in a hotel but what if members of ERSA or CUFC want to drive? To some, Chatt. to Nashville is not that bad of a drive. Why does distance or time of travel make it mandatory for teams to stay in a hotel? Some families may not be able to afford staying in a hotel. Some parents may be forced to send their kid with another family. Some teams/parents have more money than others. It would be ashamed if parents could not see their kid play because they were forced into staying at certain hotels. Regional tournament was just like that. Teams HAD to stay at certain hotels or they were eliminated. Yes, while the $140.00 a night hotels were nice but there was nothing special about them, I am sure lesser priced hotels would have just as nice. Also, The end of may is graduation for many high schools in this area. Some parents may have older kids graduating that weekend. Are they going to have to rent a room for friday night even though they wont be there until saturday? What is the penalty for not staying in these chosen hotels? Does my kid's team run the risk of being eliminated or stripped of first place if we win because parents for whatever reason could not rent the rooms. Be eliminated because some parents chose to stay in town friday night so they could see their senior graduate? Is there a quota on how many rooms/or nights a team must rent? Will I even need a room saturday night? If my team gets stomped and elimnated from the tournament do we even need to stay saturday night? Ofcourse part of this worrying is a waste because we may not even need to be there friday and can just drive up saturday. This may be a rambling, run on staement of frustration but it all boils down to is 1)why are the official seedings not out? Season has been over for about 2 weeks. 2) Why is there not a schedule out yet? I guess because they haven't done 1 yet. And finally 3) How can they tell anybody they have to stay in a certain "parnership" hotel? How can they tell me or anyone where we have to sleep or the girls/teams will be punished. What is the state getting out of forming this "partnership" with these hotels? I hope someone can help me clarify some of these issues. I hope I am wrong on them too. But I along with other parents, from my club and other clubs are getting frustrated with this subject and the way it is being handled(or not) by Tenn. soccer. Thank you all for your time and patience. P.S. Please forgive my grammatical and spellig errors.

Our club is based in Chattanooga/ East Ridge but being "right on the border", we have many girls who play high school soccer in north Georgia. Does anyone know where I can find a place that discusses those teams too. I enjoy keeping up with Tennessee soccer, but I would like to know what is going on with the schools in north Georgia. Can anyone help? Thanks.

We just got back from playing in the Adidas United Cup of Champions. We Played in U 14 Gold bracket. We wanted to play very tough competition before our D2 States. We finished 3 and 1. We played Brentwood u14 select, TUSC Red and Harpeth Black. Then we played Harpeth again in the finals. We won 5-3 in PK's. Talk about gut wrenching! Harpeth is one baaaaad team! That's bad in a good way. The best team we have ever played. What a weekend. We just hoped to be competetive with the big dogs. To win it was way more than we ever expected. Could we do it again? I really don't know. But this weekend was truly an exciting weekend for us.

East Ridge

i do now. just found this website